Segling: West Coast Version

I'm sorry this is so long in coming, but there is just so much to do...

I think this will just be super picture-heavy, and if you want to know more, I'd love to tell you in person.

Enjoy!

View from our "bunk".

Chart especially necessary when navigating through 400 islands that look the same.

Motoring through a canal, checking out the cows, sheep, and other animal friends who have waterfront property.

Sverige!

Visiting Erik's pappa's sister and family in Kämpersvik.  It felt a lot like Noank or Groton Long Point...but with a bastu.

Played lots of "fotball" with new friends Lidun (4) and Sondre (2), cousins of Erik.

I actually ate an animal that used to live in the sea: crayfish.  On toast with aioli, yes please and thank you.

Next day, to a small island nearby to climb this fractured stone mass.

Walking under those huge stones lodged in this small crevice should not have felt racy but did.

Looking out over town and archipelago.

Playing craps to pass the time.  Anchored off a nature preserve.

With this as the view! Across the way there were all sorts of little houses built onto the rocks (as you really see everywhere), including a bastu where you could just run down the dock and dive into the cold ocean water.

In Smögen, a very touristy but also adorable place.

Our first of many swims.  Erik on his way out.

And in...

This is harder than it looks.  Water was so, so cold but then rather delightful once you're in.

Post-swim lättöl and relaxation.

And finally, some serious ocean sailing, with high, favorable winds.

And ocean tankers.

Minutes from our hemhamn, this beauty.  I felt like I should have been taking more pictures of the houses along the shoreline, but there were just so damn many, each of which was cuter than the last....so here's our representative.  Although often on the west coast the houses are white....

Erik modeling in the awning my pappa built for Eriks pappa.  Worked like a dream, a really wonderful thing for our first night, when it was drizzling somewhat, and then the last night, when it was so windy but we wanted to play cards.

View from the side.  It is the perfect size, and was much admired by ourselves as well as passersby.

Final supper.

And cards!  A favorite game of the family, hjärter sju, or Seven of Hearts.  Really great game, we'll play sometime.

The next day was full of swimming and visiting friends, and then a six-hour car ride back to Falun.  The day after: train ride home early in the morning so we could prepare for Sarah and Alex, friends from highschool and New York, to arrive around midnight.

That story in pictures coming soon.

Puss!